UNDERSTANDING FREE WILL
Martin
Luther struggled greatly with the relationship of God’s sovereignty to human
free will and sin. In fact, one of the greatest books ever written on the
subject, The Bondage of the Will, is from Luther’s pen. When
Luther grappled with this issue, he especially struggled with the Old Testament
passages where we read that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 4:21; 7:3–4, 13–14, 22–23; 8:15, 19, 30–32; 9:27–10:2; 10:16–20, 24–28).
When
we read these passages, we tend to think, “Doesn’t this suggest that God not
only works through the desires and actions of humans, but that He actually
forces evil upon people?” After all, the Bible does say that God hardened
Pharaoh’s heart.
When
Luther discussed this, he observed that when the Bible says that God hardened
the heart of Pharaoh, God did not create fresh evil in the heart of an innocent
man. Luther said that God didn’t harden people by putting evil in their hearts.
All that God must do to harden anyone’s heart is to withhold His own grace;
that is, He gives a person over to himself.
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